What's the recipe for creating a niche coupe, using two of America's perennial top-selling sedans as a base? Lose the rear doors, craft an attractive rear end, and offer an optional manual gearbox to please enthusiasts. But unlike purpose-driven performance coupes such as the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang, sedan-based coupes must capture the essence of the four-door original in order to carry its fan base. As recently as two years ago, the list of two-door iterations of sedans included entries from Toyota, Chevrolet, and Chrysler. Since then, however, the field of midsize coupes has shrunk to a number you can count on one hand. And with two of the standouts, the 2011 Honda Accord and Nissan Altima coupes, remarkably similar in terms of dimensions, horsepower, and price point, we decided to see how each manufacturer applies the tried-and-true formula.

Production Reverse: Honda Built More Cars in U.S. than in Japan During Q2

By
Andrew Peterson
- 08/04/2010

Honda, like most automakers, has plants in several countries around the world to complement production in its home country. For the first time, however, Honda's U.S. production outpaced Japanese production for a full quarter.

Acura doesn't offer a two-door car right now, and that's probably a good thing. With a rich leather interior and surplus of electronics, the Accord V-6 EX-L we recently spent some time with makes any Acura coupe redundant.

I was pleasantly surprised by the manual Accord coupe. It's a good example of Honda's knack for building vehicles that appeal to the mainstream consumer but still offer a bit of enjoyment for the enthusiast. The light steering is effortless in daily driving but it also provides enough feedback to be rewarding on the curvy stuff. Even with 271 hp, the 3.5-liter V-6 doesn't often overpower the front tires but it's also no slouch. Plus, it sounds great. Start off slow and you'll hear a nice muffled growl; floor it and that faint noise builds into a roar by the time it reaches redline. The six-speed manual and the clutch pedal require more effort than I expect from a Honda -- particularly the heavy clutch -- but it wouldn't stop me from choosing the manual if I were going to buy an Accord coupe.

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